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Written by Richard Apps
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Page 3 of 4 Norway 25/05/02
 As far as we could go.
Saturday morning was much like friday but with a bit of wind, reducing the humidity and drying the rock. We lingered over breakfast and left the bivi gear in situ planning to pick it up after the climb. Taking an alpine rack we walked round to the right of the east pillar and up past the troll wall aiming to cut up a shallow gully to join fivaratu and the gully it followed.
The moraine/scree slopes we followed were exceptionally sharp and treacherous with huge boulders making a bid for the sea whilst we were moving around them. This made the going very slow and delicate. After a couple of hours we reached a point at which we were able to see across into the gully we were intending to ascend to join fivaratu. The gully would need to be gained by at least a pitch of very loose steep rock that had patches of grass over it. To even get there though would require at least 200meters traverse on a a very long steep snow slope. As we had not thought to encounter much snow we had no axe, I was particularly unhappy to move across this slope without some form of protection or ability to self arrest. Whilst we sat and considered other options several large rocks rumbled out of our route effectively making our minds up. Later on and lower down we were able to look up directly into the back of the gully which was still full of snow. Some consolation was gained from the fact that if we had been able to traverse the snow and climb the loose and vegetated rock whilst avoiding the stonefall we would definitely have been repulsed by the banked out gully.
 Rog with a wet Troll behind.
We headed back down the scree to pick up the bivi gear having been thoroughly beaten by a mountain without even getting properly established on a route. We picked up the gear brewed up and bouldered around before heading down to the comfort of Andalsnes bars and beds.
Saturday night was a large night, consolation beers culminated in jumping into the fjord sometime after 2.
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